Nice words but where’s the transformation

Nice words but where’s the transformation

The Governments announcements concerning economics transformation contain a lot of nice words but the work program underneath them is hardly transformational, says Business NZ CEO Phil O’Reilly.

The Governments 5 themes of economic transformation are sensible enough but the detailed work programs are mainly existing Government initiatives tagged to one of the themes and somehow labelled transformational as a result.

There are some things Government is currently doing that could be transformational if successfully carried out as part of a wider reform agenda. These include increased infrastructure investment, tertiary education reform and attempting to build better links between business and the science community. But the Government is failing to bolster these commendable initiatives with other transformational objectives such as reducing growth in Government expenditure as a proportion of GDP, reforming development unfriendly legislation like the RMA and treating business tax as a key tool for economic competitiveness.

A transformational agenda can only succeed if government truly engages with business in setting the agenda and then works in partnership with business to deliver on it. Business is willing and waiting to engage.

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